Today's News

Last week’s heroin bust, which amounted to 2,800 hits of the drug, helped keep the drug from gaining a stronghold in the county, according to Bedford County Sheriff Mike Brown.
Late Sunday, June 7 and early into Monday morning, members of the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office, Vice Unit and investigators from DEA, Virginia State Police, Roanoke Police Department and the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (“HIDTA”) Task Force made the bust, arresting 54-year-old Jesse Ray Little of Huddleston.

The hobby grew and the couple turned it into a business. At first, they sold from spaces in antique malls, but now they have their own shop. It’s called Needful Things Antiques and they opened their doors for the first time on March 1. The shop is located in Bedford at the corner of North Bridge Street and Depot Street.
“We try to have a little bit of everything for everybody,” Linda said.

The National D-Day Memorial marked the 71st anniversary of D-Day as 1,100 people gathered at the Memorial under a hot June sun.

D-Day marked the beginning of the end of Hitler’s Nazi regime as the German Army was unable to stop the advance of allied troops after American, British and Canadian soldiers drove a wide hole in German coastal defenses on the Norman coast.

Turnout was good, especially for a primary. According to Barbara Gunter, the county’s registrar, voter turnout was 4.6 percent by 10 a.m. The Welcome Center precinct had seen 96 voters by 9:30 a.m. and the Bedford Central Library precinct had seen 126 by 10 a.m. Voter turnout at the Liberty High School precinct was 117 by 10:45.

Bedford County emerged from the first day of regional playoffs looking like a starting pitcher who’s seen better days.
On Monday, Bedford teams amassed a record of two wins, six losses and two no-decisions.
This is the “one-and-done” time of year. Thus, Jefferson Forest’s boys’ and girls’ soccer, Liberty’s softball and girls’ soccer and Staunton River’s softball and boys’ soccer all saw their seasons come to an abrupt ending.

Back when Lacey Putney was first elected to the House of Delegates, the winner of the Democratic Primary was also the winner of the November election. Putney was first elected by unseating the incumbent delegate, Charles Green, in a Democratic Party primary in 1961.
Now, at least in Bedford County, the winner of the Republican primary, is also the winner of the November election.

The Stewartsville-Chamblissburg Volunteer Fire Department got unanimous approval from the board of supervisors to buy a new fire truck. The truck will be a 2015 Pierce pumper. According to Jack Jones, the county’s fire and rescue chief, the pumper purchase is part of the fire and rescue 20 year replacement cycle.

After more than 30 years of work in law enforcement, Capt. Jim Bennett of the Bedford Police Department is retiring.

Most of those years were spent here in Bedford – he began his career with the Wintergreen Police Department in 1984 and joined the Bedford PD in 1987.
“Hopefully I’ve made a difference in some people’s lives,” Bennett stated Thursday, during a retirement gathering for him in the council chambers at the Municipal Building.

James Douglas Scott saw one more Strawberry Festival, and then he was gone. Better known as J. D. Scott, owner of Scott’s Strawberry Farm, he lost a long battle with cancer on May 31.
Scott Baker, the county’s Virginia Tech extension agent, was one of the people who knew Scott well. Baker has been Bedford County’s extension agent since 1997.
“He’s always been an individual who has utilized extension,” Baker said.